The Markham Jazz Festival was initiated in 1998. For the past 18 years, the Markham Jazz Festival has presented diverse and eclectic jazz performers - performers who are not only drawn from the cream of the crop of Canadian jazz artists, but who also come from a wide variety of other countries, including the U.S.A. and Cuba. The Festival's repertoire spans a variety of genres, including traditional, swing, Latin, fusion, world, Dixieland, and contemporary jazz.